Happening Today

Edmonton Headlines: Monday, May 7, 2018

Zoning and education news

Written by Jeff Samsonow

Edmonton’s always got a lot of new developments and redevelopments happening, so I thought we’d start this look at local news with some zoning stories. Yay, zoning!

The biggest zoning change is going to be all the new rules for legalized marijuana, including retail stores, growing and cultivation and how that blends with medical marijuana and accessory shops. The big issues will be the distance between stores, and from schools and parks, and also where you can smoke. This one should be done by Monday night. Whatever the rules, it won’t be super-easy or cheap to open up a store, with a lot of licensing requirements and fees to pay.

Or they could split the difference and change the project enough to win over city council, even if some community members aren’t happy, as we see in the new Bateman Towers in Strathcona.

Bateman lands proposal image: City of Edmonton

I’m almost certain that this approval, along with The Mezzo and South Park developments, kills the chance of mid-rise buildings taking over Old Strathcona’s main streets. Edmonton could use a mid-rise neighbourhood!

Now then… you might have heard that Alberta’s Official Opposition, the party that has the second-most seats in the Legislature had its founding convention this weekend. The party that could very well form government after next year’s election had a pile of policies, and some speakers, that attack women and minority and vulnerable communities. Included is the push to out students who join gay-straight alliances (GSAs). We don’t know if a conservative government would build new schools, but we do know they’d build them at the Lake of Fire.

This is obviously a terrible, hateful idea borne of the far-right conservatism the united party looked to attract in an effort to combine the old PC and Wildrose parties. And it’s among many other policies the party officially adopted that don’t do a whole lot to help society march forward. Conservatives want next year’s election to be about the economy, but they’re made it clear it has to be about protecting public healthcare and education, women, Indigenous rights, LGBTQ2S+ and other vulnerable communities.